Homelessness

[tiggerblue10]

This is quite a sad situation up and down the country and the problem seems to be growing. What are the main causes? Is it lack of jobs, family breakdowns, over-population or something else?

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/the-photo-that-sums-up-the-imbalance-of-wealth-in-britain/ar-BBXvNen?li=AAnZ9Ug&ocid=mailsignout

If you were in a position of power, what would you do to help combat homelessness in your area?

I went to Cardiff in January for a couple of day on a work trip and it was like tent city in and around the shopping centre. My colleague and I went to Primark, bought a load of gloves and woolly hats and handed them out.

[Old_Geezer]

I'm unsure why there's insufficient tax collected to have enough temporary use hostels and get folk on the employment/self sufficiency upward spiral. Naturally there will be a hard core mentally incapable of looking after themselves or coping with life; but it should be possible to make headway with most.

[Vagus]

I’d have thought so too, OG.
As you say, I think there are quite a number of homeless who will always remain so, in spite of any and all help offered, due to a variety of reasons.
Wish I had an answer.

[hc4361]

There is no single cause of homelessness. I doubt many homeless people could give one reason if they were asked how they came to be in that situation.
Drugs, mental illness, lack of life skills, domestic violence, sheer bad luck, eviction for non-payment of rent or anti social behaviour, gambling, lack of support when leaving prison, lack of support when leaving the care system, choice...the list goes on and on.

A few are incapable of managing to run a home.

[emmie]

good for you for your generosity, i don't know the answer at all. London has something like 5,000 rough sleepers or so the news reporter said the other day.

[andres]

My grandson is a policeman and tells us that in the adjoining town probably about half of the people on the streets are not homeless ,they are just beggars.So whilst I have every sympathy with the genuine ones ,the numbers are being exaggerated by the scroungers.

[Tilly2]

How do you tell the difference between them, Andres?

[andres]

I only know the ones who get on the bus in our town centre in a morning complete with dog and then see them later in the precinct of a nearby town. Begging. The police however do know who they are.

[david small]

Arrest the beggars after ascertaining that they are in fact beggars. Caution them, move em on, if reoffending arrest them, goal them. Enforcement of homeless into hostel or equivalent safe place.

[pastafreak]

When I go into the city centre here, I'd say 95% of the men and women I see are familiar to me as clients where I work. I'd say the reasons given by hc cover all the causes of homelessness very well. They are numerous, with drug and alchohol use exacerbating any other issues people may have.

[hc4361]

Andre, perhaps the people you see getting on the bus in the morning have spent the night in a night shelter or it could be easier to sleep rough in that area and be easier to beg in the precinct. The police and council can have different attitudes to rough sleeping and begging in neighbouring areas.

[pastafreak]

There have been police here who would like nothing better then to move all the homeless on. Out of sight...out of mind. Let someone else worry about them.

[Ringlet]

I agree with HC4361. Just because the people who beg get a bus to their begging venue, this does not mean that they are not sleeping rough. I am aware that many people who sleep outdoors feel very vulnerable in city centres, and seek out less populated areas to sleep, where they have more chance of finding an empty garage or shed to shelter in. But the best begging areas tend to be in city centres, where the shoppers are. Hence the bus ride.
Over-population is not, I believe, a major cause of homelessness. When you see all the empty buildings (including former homes) boarded up and unused, you realise if overpopulation were a problem, all the buildings would be bursting at the seams with people. The answer to why there are so many homeless people is indeed a lot more complex.

[hc4361]

Next time you walk around your town try and spot the anti-homeless architecture that is becoming more and more common.

[retrocop]

As Andre says the police are aware of all the fraudulent beggars on their patch and there are many.
There was a great hoo hah about the usual beggars being moved on from outside Windsor Castle on the build up to the last royal wedding. Thames Valley Police were aware that at least one had a house in Berkshire and drove to Windsor where he set up his pitch in a bus shelter for the day.

Read the last link from the perspective of a beat officer.







yhttps://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/649658/Audi-Brinton-Beggar-Newquay-beggar-with-Audi-TT-Beggar-in-Audi-TT-Cornwall

https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/lincoln-news/lincoln-beggar-who-home-caught-2298880

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/police-say-cheeky-beggar-unmasked-13719995

[retrocop]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/279596/it-beggars-belief-homeless-man-filmed-getting-into-his-sports-car-after-a-day-asking-for-money/

[andres]

How do I know that the ones I see in a morning getting on the bus and going to the nearest big town to beg? Well ,if you have lived in the same small Lancashire town for 70 years you do get to know the people. We don't have any beggars in our town centre and there are no rough sleepers .Probably the main reason being that everyone would know them and know they were just 'topping up their benefits.' I know some of the druggies and alkies tend to get together and sleep in their mates flats. Not supposed to but it does happen . I have sympathy for the genuine homeless but just pointing out the vast numbers of scroungers who are milking the system .

[hc4361]

There are baddies, wrong uns and fraudsters in every walk of life. I could tell you a tale about a rogue pair of police officers and an off licence break in.